dusk
We had planned on leaving in the morning, but decided against it as the place we had planned on spending our last night in this town together was now the site of Biker and The Abbott's deaths. The 'snails house' was complete, the tray of the Ute was covered in blankets and bedding. The Colonel had even thought ahead and had run a hose over the exhaust pipe that led to the exterior of the contraption, so we could still run the engine from time to time, in the event that we needed to actually drive somewhere. The only real major difficulty was a lack of light. This was solved relatively simply by Apocalypse Girl's handy mobile phone.
We stopped when the sun went down, all huddling in the tray of the Ute, eating jerky. We talked amongst ourselves for a while, mostly reminiscing about Biker. Copper seemed especially distraught over her demise, though he told us he could understand why she did it. His sister had been through something similar, a few years ago, which had at first led him to join the police force, and then he had found the bastard responsible. He didn't go into any details, simply assured us that his sister's abuser was very dead.
It was surprisingly warm under the tarpaulin, warm and dry. So far the 'snail' idea was working perfectly. Getting into and out of the cabin was a little tricky, especially with Apocalypse Girl's arm, the only other real problem being pushing it along. There seemed to be a significant amount of drag from the weight of the 'snail' attachment but that was of little real concern.
Considering the circumstances, we were doing alright, I thought. It had been more than difficult, getting to this point, surviving, but we had to keep on going. Humanity as a whole, we decided, was almost certainly due for extinction, but we six were going to hold out as long as we could possibly manage it. The Dead hadn't managed to get us so far, nor had the Living, neither for lack of trying.
Huddled up as we were for the night, there was no leaving the safety of the 'snail' in order to relieve oneself, so it was back to the bottles, or whatever else might serve as a temporary chamber pot, at least until morning. No doubt we would have found this much less pleasant had we been able to actually keep ourselves clean over the last couple of weeks, but since our flight from the commune, there had been precious little chances for bathing, or laundry. Thinking about it, the shitty chamber pots probably were more offended by our collective stench...
February 3rd Year 1 A.Z.
morning
Glancing around in the morning we saw that we had barely made any real distance at all. However, some is better than none, and the added security and warmth of the 'snail' was worth the massive delay. It did get awfully cramped, not to mention smelly, in the rear portion of the 'snail' though, and we were all glad to stretch our legs, and breathe relatively fresh air. The snow continued unabated, covering the world in grey. Copper stared back at the town we had left the previous night, barely a kilometre behind us. I knew what was on his mind, it was the same thing that had been plaguing me since this whole thing had begun over a month ago. You barely meet somebody and they die, sometimes quietly slipping away...more often though, these days, being torn to pieces in front of you. He was wondering when it was going to be his turn to die.
The Twin was assisting Apocalypse Girl with changing her bandages, sitting in the cab of the Ute, which was running, in order to charge her phone while she tested the range of mobility left to her since being shot. She was wincing, but clearly able to move her arm nearly to its full extent. She would, however, have an angry scar on her arm. She smiled up at me, and I asked her if there was any news online. She shook her head, the smile fading slightly, until The Twin pulled tight her bandage, when it vanished completely in a grunt of pain. Junior and The Colonel leaned back against the bonnet of the Ute, relaxing in the heat radiating from the engine.
The canned goods we had found had run out last night, and so we broke our fast upon jerky. Jerky we seemed to have in abundance, at least. Jerky and medical supplies and water. Of course, if we had to survive on jerky alone much longer then we would run out of water soon enough.
noon
After an entire morning pushing the damn Ute, we stopped for a break. Apocalypse Girl, unable to push with only one usable arm, was in the cab, steering. I was pushing with The Colonel and The Twin, with Junior and Copper sitting in the blanketed tray of the Ute, resting. As there were no Dead visible, we once more exited the confines of the 'snail' to stretch our legs. Our backs, really. A handful of jerky, mouthful of water later we were back inside. This time, however, Copper and Junior assisted The Colonel in pushing while The Twin and I relaxed, almost in true comfort.
I asked The Colonel if she needed some time up in the back, to which she simply shook her head. Junior, huffing along beside her, asked her why not, and she replied simply that it was her job to assist and protect civilians. We were civilians, it was as simple as that. Copper simply shook his head, saying that was his job too. The Colonel looked at him. “You are a civilian, too, you know,” She told him in no uncertain terms. We all chuckled a little.
The Twin snored softly next to me, and I was just beginning to doze off to the sound when Apocalypse Girl applied the brakes, slowly. “Dead ahead...” She told us, as reason. “What do we do?” I lifted my head up in order to see through the windscreen, and saw approximately twenty or thirty of them, shrouded in grey from the snow, milling about. They had not noticed us yet, that was certain. The Colonel slid up alongside me, surveying the scene before us.
“We should be alright to just go through them, I think, we just have to take it slow and easy. Move into them too fast and they'll get the idea we're food. The snowplough should help separate them for us, hopefully.” I heard myself saying. The Colonel nodded, and tried to slip back into position. Copper stopped her, saying that we didn't need any more than two pushing right now. She tried to protest, but we could all see quite clearly that she was totally exhausted. I manouevered myself into the cab beside Apocalypse Girl as Copper and Junior began to push us through the Dead.
We started out okay, that much was true, the snowplough separated them nicely, without them even noticing it, it seemed. As the cab of the Ute passed between the two groups, a Dead hand flailed at the windscreen eliciting a squeak from Apocalypse Girl. I turned to the others in the back, telling them to keep on pushing, Apocalypse Girl turning too, adding that we were just starting to go through them now.
At that precise moment, three things happened. The Ute came across a downwards slope, and began to pick up speed. Junior hopped up in the tray and Copper tripped over something in the road, a pothole perhaps, and fell, grazing his hands. The extra speed of the Ute coupled with the scent of blood from Coppers injury drove the Dead wild, and as the rear of the 'snail' went over Copper leaving him defenceless in the middle of a small but hungry group of Dead, he began to scream.
Choking back a sob, Apocalypse Girl turned the engine on, and we drove away from the dying Copper and his wails of agony, as the Dead tore him to pieces. After a few kilometres she stopped the Ute, turning it off, tears streaming down her face.
evening
We all huddled together in the tray of the Ute. Silently we ate, all of us mourning Copper and Biker in our own way. The Colonel, it seemed, was taking it harder than any of the rest of us. Apocalypse Girl was also not in a good state of mind, but was accepting it. Junior simply sat, jerky in hand, uneaten. The Twin reorganised our supplies into shares of five rather than six without a word.
Apocalypse Girl asked me quietly if I thought they were going to follow us. I replied that they were probably too busy with Copper to bother with us. She nodded slowly, and said that was good. She told me that leaving him had been both the hardest and yet the easiest thing she had ever had to do. Hardest because she hated to leave a friend behind, but easiest simply by thinking of the rest of us. I said that he was already dead once he had left the cover of the 'snail' and that he would have wanted us to go on without him anyway.
“He must have known somehow,” Junior said, out of the blue. “He asked me this morning, if anything happened to him to make sure we check up on his family. Made me promise.”
“We keep heading to Melbourne then. If we find them alive we help them survive. If we find them Dead...” The Colonel left the rest unsaid.
February 4th Year 1 A.Z.
morning
The snow had ceased falling by the time we awoke, but it was still fucking cold. The clouds were back to boiling once more, this time lightning flashing from one point across the sky in a dazzling display. Of more immediate concern, however, were the Dead that might have followed us, after Copper had died. The Twin, having the sharpest eyes of the five of us remaining, dropped behind us for a couple of hours in order to make certain we had no followers, upon returning reporting that she had seen nothing at all out of the ordinary. Apart from
fucking snow in outback Australia!
That was going to take a bit of getting used to, it seemed. The Colonel suggested that the nuclear winter could last several months, maybe even upwards of a couple of years. She went further to say that basically what we were experiencing was similar, in many respects, to what had happened to the dinosaurs. Apocalypse Girl asked if that meant the dinosaurs had to deal with Dead velociraptors and such. The Colonel shook her head, a wry smile on her face. No, she was just talking about the winter. The only real difference had been the catalyst. I pointed out that the snow the dinos had to deal with had probably been a bit whiter than our current sludge. In any case, the outlook certainly seemed grim, for the entire world it would seem.
“Hey, I think I see lights up ahead...” Junior said, peering off into the distance beyond the Ute. I could see nothing in the gloom, even The Twin said she saw nothing. “I'm sure I saw something there.” We proceeded, with Apocalypse Girl in the drivers seat once again, the rest of us pushing the Ute, reasoning that four can push harder, and for longer, than two sets of two. This theory proved sound, but of course, that meant all four of us needed to be resting at the same time, as well. This meant less progress through the day, simply put, the five kilometres that we had estimated as an average travel distance each day had now dropped to three-and-a-half at best. It was going to take us a fucking long time to get to Melbourne.
noon
Another hold up, this time in the form of several cars, smashed together into one compact pile of metallic rubble. The snow had melted somewhat, leaving us with no doubt of two things. First, we would have to move this pile of crap off the road, at least partially, in order for the 'snail' to pass. Secondly, there were Dead trapped in the wreckage, at least three that we could identify easily. None of them were easy to reach, however, which meant that we had to move the whole damn wreck, at once, without disturbing the Dead overly much.
We cleared the road fairly simply, though it required all five of us, Apocalypse Girl included, to shift it into motion. Once it was rolling, however, it seemed to want to just trundle off the side of the road and sit there, quite nicely containing the Dead within. We took the risk of searching the cars remains, though only briefly, and scored a family fun pack of chocolates for our troubles. Apocalypse Girl tried to tear the pack open at once, without any success due to her wounds, but The Colonel rightly pointed out that we should continue onwards, and save the sweet stuff for after our jerky dinner.
We left the Dead trapped in the wreckage, hungering for our flesh, piling back into the Ute, and as before, we pushed our way onwards.
evening
Jerky followed by chocolate during the apocalypse is just about as close as you can come to a heavenly meal, as we discovered. Apocalypse Girl sighed morosely after finishing her second piece, as two each were all we had. Junior pointed out, as we clambered into the Ute's tray before sleep, that the one thing that could make this the perfect night would be something to smoke. The Twin, smiling devilishly, whipped out a baggie containing the ends of the last few joints. Enough to roll up a small one for everybody to share. We talked about the time before all this happened, telling one another bullshit stories from our pasts, boyhood moments of heroism, or romantic interludes. We spoke of films we had seen, some we had enjoyed, some not so much. I told of my very first car, a battered orange piece of shit that I had managed to get away with only paying fifty bucks for. That piece of shit had only lasted six months, but it had been a memorable six months...
“It's never going to be the same again, is it?” Apocalypse Girl asked of nobody in particular. “With the Dead, I mean, nothing will ever be like it was, will it?”